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Global Feedback Ltd v Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (challenge to the Food Strategy) - judgment

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Global Feedback Ltd v Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (challenge to the Food Strategy) - press release

Filing Year For Action

In June 2022 the UK government published its Food Strategy. According to the government the strategy “will help ensure we deliver our ambition for a prosperous agri-food sector, and that healthier and more sustainable diets can be achieved by all”.

The Strategy was challenged on public law grounds by Global Feedback, a campaigning organisation concerned with a sustainable food system. 

Both the independent review of the National Food Strategy written by Henry Dimbleby and commissioned by the government in 2019 and the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC) have identified substantial reductions in meat and dairy as essential to tackle climate change. Feedback argued that the government’s failure to incorporate this advice, in particular the CCC’s recommendations, or explain why it opted to not adopt their expert recommendations was unlawful.

In December 2022, the High Court refused permission for the claim to proceed to trial. However in June 2023 the Court of Appeal reversed that decision and heard the claim in October 2023.

At issue is whether section 13 of the Climate Change Act 2008 (the duty to prepare proposals and policies for meeting the UK carbon budgets) was engaged with the adoption of the Food Strategy.

The judgement handed down in December 2023 dismissed the claim for judicial review, ruling that the Secretary of State for Environment and Food and Rural Affairs was under no obligation to develop policies to reduce emissions in food and farming within the government’s Food Strategy. 
The court considered the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero’s duty under section 13 of the Climate Change Act 2008 to be economy wide and not to be divided amongst the secretaries of state for different government departments. The adoption of the food strategy by the environment secretary was not therefore an activity caught by section 13.

A second question was, when adopting the Food Strategy, did either secretary of state need to be aware of, give significant weight to, and give cogent reasons for departing from, the advice of the Climate Change Committee on diet and climate change? Because the court found section 13 did not apply, this second question did not arise. However the Court nonetheless considered it, coming to the clear conclusion that the law does not impose these duties.

Global Feedback Ltd v Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (challenge to the Food Strategy)

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

A long-lived, colourless gas, chiefly emitted from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and cement production.

Any compulsory, unrequited payment to the government levied on corporations or individuals. This can be for environmental reasons, such as introducing a Carbon tax to set a price that emitters must pay for the greenhouse gases they emit.

A target to reduce the prevalence of a greenhouse gas over a specific time frame

Activities that involve the cultivation of crops and raising of livestock for food, fibre, and other products essential for human life and industry.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Actions or measures to adapt terrestrial systems to climate change.

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

Climate change impacts our society by disrupting the natural, economic and social systems we depend on. Physical hazards and underlying vulnerabilities can lead to increased resource competition for food and water, which can heighten the risk of conflict.

A commitment to balance GHG emissions with removal by a certain point in time, effectively reducing the net emissions to zero

Activities that relate to the production of goods and services from forests.

A potent, short-lived greehouse gas, largely released from livestock, fossil fuel extraction and waste management.

The release of heat-trapping gases, primarily from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

People who are less able to respond to the effects of climate change due to having limited financial or physical assets

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

Global Feedback Ltd v Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (challenge to the Food Strategy) - judgment

Target

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance